The Cloverfield Paradox (2018)

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Cloverfield Films
10 Cloverfield Lane
The Cloverfield Paradox
None
The Cloverfield Paradox
The Cloverfield Paradox poster
Directed by Julius Onah
Producer J.J. Abrams, Lindsey Weber (producers),
Tommy Harper, Robert J. Dohrmann,
Jon Cohen, Bryan Burk, Drew Goddard, Matt Reeves (executive producers)
Written by Oren Uziel (story and screenplay),
Doug Jung (story)
Music by Bear McCreary
Distributor Netflix
Rating PG-13[1]
Budget $45,000,000[2]
Running time 102 minutes
(1 hour, 42 minutes)
Aspect ratio 2.39:1
Rate this film!
3.15
(20 votes)

The future unleashed every thing
„ 

— Tagline

The Cloverfield Paradox is a 2018 science fiction film produced by Paramount Pictures and Bad Robot. The third entry in the Cloverfield anthology series, it became available to stream worldwide via Netflix on February 4, 2018, with the exception of China, where it will be distributed by Paramount. The Cloverfield Paradox is a conventionally-shot film like 10 Cloverfield Lane rather than a found footage film like the original Cloverfield, simultaneously showing events taking place on a space station and on the Earth. The film does loosely tie into the events of the previous films, demonstrating the existence of a multiverse and offering an explanation for how paranormal creatures such as the monster from Cloverfield and the aliens from 10 Cloverfield Lane entered the respective realities of those films.

Plot

In the near future, Earth is on the verge of exhausting its energy sources. As countries prepare to go to war over the scraps, an international team of astronauts prepares to test the Shepard particle accelerator onboard Cloverfield Station, in the hopes of creating a limitless energy source. British communications officer Ava Hamilton is encouraged by her husband Michael to join the mission while waiting in line at a gas station, so she can save the world and perhaps their relationship.

Hamilton’s fellow astronauts are American commander Kiel, German physicist Ernst Schmidt, Brazilian doctor Monk Acosta, Irish engineer Mundy, Russian engineer Volkov, and Chinese engineer Tam. Their first test of the particle accelerator is a failure, as are their next 45 attempts over the next two years. On the day of the third-to-last test the station can make, Hamilton talks with Michael about the growing chaos on Earth, then watches a video of their children, who were killed in a house fire. Over breakfast, Volkov all but accuses Schmidt of sabotaging the tests for an advantage in the impending German-Russian war, leading to a brawl between the two men. Kiel rebukes them. Before the test starts, Monk watches an author on the news claim that the accelerator could open gateways for monsters from alternate realities.

The Shepard particle accelerator finally succeeds, but overloads seconds later, flinging the astronauts onto the ceiling, starting a fire aboard the satellite, and damaging the oxygen tanks. After they extinguish it, they realize that they are no longer orbiting the Earth—the test either displaced them in space or vaporized the planet. Kiel orders the bickering astronauts to focus on survival. Hamilton finds the gyro that should control the ship’s orientation systems missing, right before Tam discovers an injured woman who has somehow appeared behind a wall. The crew frees her.

On Earth, a series of explosions awakens Michael. Fighter jets fly overhead as he tries to find out the cause. On Cloverfield Station, the strange happenings continue: the players on a foosball table begin spinning on their own before changing uniform colors, Mundy finds all the worms in the science lab have disappeared, and Volkov begins suffering from a lazy eye and pain on the side of his head. He creates a gun using a 3D printer and draws it on Volkov and Tam before collapsing. The astronauts tries to help him, but he soon dies, then vomits up the missing worms. The mysterious woman, who now appears in a photo of Cloverfield Station’s crew instead of Hamilton, awakens. She introduces herself as Mina Jensen and is distraught to learn that none of the astronauts know who she is, as she has worked with all of them except Tam. Embracing Hamilton, she warns her not to trust Schmidt, as he sabotaged the Shepard.

Kiel checks Schmidt’s messages and learns that he has been taking orders from German intelligence to prevent the Shepard from working until Russia was no longer a threat. He locks him in the airlock. On Earth, Michael learns that Cloverfield Station has disappeared and drives to the hospital where he works, only to find it in ruins. A massive, long-limbed shape passes overhead. He finds a child in the rubble named Molly and rescues her.

While repairing damage to the ship, Monk’s arm becomes trapped in and ultimately severed by the metal plate that Mina appeared behind. Schmidt, who suddenly free from the airlock, finds Mundy’s arm crawling towards him. They cage it. Schmidt theorizes that the bizarre happenings aboard the ship are the result of a paradox caused by the Shepard—two alternate realities colliding. Mundy’s arm writes out a message: “Cut Volkov open.” They find the missing gyro inside his chest. Reinstalling it, they find that they have indeed been displaced: the Earth is still there. Able to receive messages but not transmit them, they receive word of a war in Europe that has raged for 14 months. The Cloverfield Station from this reality has just exploded, with debris landing in the Atlantic Ocean. Schmidt believes a second successful firing of the Shepard will return them to their own dimension.

Michael drives the child to a friend’s underground shelter. While repairing the ship, Tam becomes trapped in a chamber which suddenly fills with water and is killed when it ruptures. Jensen, as the Shepard engineer in her reality, takes her place. She shows Hamilton that her children are still alive on this Earth; the power cell she installed so they could read at night never exploded. Kiel tries to talk her out of traveling down to see them after they reactivate the Shepard, but she is convinced the Hamilton from this universe will make the same fatal mistake. A localized magnetic field kills Mundy after he completes the repairs, also causing a CO2 explosion which cripples the ship. Kiel determines that the only way to save themselves is to detach the maintenance ring, requiring himself, Hamilton, and Monk to travel outside. He ultimately sacrifices himself to do so, leaving Hamilton in charge.

Jensen knocks out Hamilton before they can return to Earth in an escape pod. She quickly recovers and cancels the launch of the pod. Determined to prevent Cloverfield Station and its solution to the energy crisis from leaving her dimension, Jensen kills Monk with Volkov’s gun and wounds Schmidt. As she confronts Hamilton, he manages to get the jump on her with a crowbar, allowing Hamilton to escape, but is shot again. Attacking her with a rod from the Foosball table, Hamilton manages to get the gun and shoot two holes into a window, launching Jensen into space. After tending to Schmidt’s wounds, she sends her alternate self the data used for the successful Shepard firing and a warning about the power cell.

Hamilton and Schmidt return to their Earth and prove that the Shepard works, but the monsters it unleashed remain. As their capsule descends towards the Delaware coast, one rises out of the clouds and roars.

Staff

Main article: The Cloverfield Paradox/Credits.

Staff role on the left, staff member's name on the right.

  • Directed by   Julius Onah
  • Written by   Oren Uziel, Doug Jung
  • Executive producing by   Tommy Harper, Robert J. Dohrmann, Jon Cohen, Bryan Burk, Drew Goddard, Matt Reeves
  • Produced by   J.J. Abrams, Lindsey Weber
  • Music by   Bear McCreary
  • Cinematography by   Dan Mindel
  • Edited by   Alan Baumgarten, Matt Evans, Rebecca Valente
  • Production design by   Doug J. Meerdink
  • Assistant directing by   Mark Anthony Little, Andrew Ward

German Dub

  • Dubbing Studio   Cinephase
  • Dialogue Writers   Katja Brügger, Claudia Heuer
  • Dialogue Director   Sascha Draeger

Standard Spanish Dub

  • Dubbing Studio   Audiomaster Candiani
  • Translator   Mauricio Pérez
  • Dialogue Director   Alejandro Mayén
  • Mixer   Alonso Sánchez

Castilian Spanish Dub

  • Dubbing Studio   Cinephase
  • Translator   Magdalena Sanchez
  • Dialogue Director   Julio Lorenzo

French Dub

  • Dubbing Studio   Cinephase
  • Translators   Cendryl Blanchon, Frédéric Alameunière
  • Dialogue Director   Julie Elmaleh

Italian Dub

  • Dubbing Studio   Cinephase
  • Dialogue Writer   Serena Paccagnella
  • Dialogue Director   Federico Zanandrea

Japanese Dub

  • Dialogue Director   Ryoichi Uchikoshi
  • Dubbing Studio   AC Studio
  • Produced by   AC Create

Polish Dub

  • Dubbing Studio   Cinephase
  • Translator   Marta Kotkowsa-Pasikowska
  • Recording Engineer   Paweł Janułajtys
  • Reader   Paweł Bukrewicz

Portuguese Dub

  • Dubbing Studio   Audiomaster Candiani
  • Translator   Leonardo Macedo
  • Dialogue Director   Marcia Gomes
  • Mixer   Alonso Sánchez

Turkish Dub

  • Dubbing Studio   Cinephase
  • Translator   Pinar Batum
  • Dialogue Director   Hakan Akay

Cast

Main article: The Cloverfield Paradox/Credits#End Credits.

Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.

  • Gugu Mbatha-Raw   as   Ava Hamilton
  • David Oyelowo   as   Kiel
  • Daniel Brühl   as   Ernst Schmidt
  • John Ortiz   as   Monk Acosta
  • Chris O'Dowd   as   Mundy
  • Aksel Hennie   as   Volkov
  • Zhang Ziyi   as   Tam
  • Elizabeth Debicki   as   Mina Jensen
  • Roger Davies   as   Michael
  • Clover Nee   as   Molly
  • Jordan Rivera   as   Ayana (age 7)
  • Michael Stokes III   as   Isaac (age 7)
  • Celeste Clark   as   Ayana (age 4)
  • Nathan Oliver   as   Isaac (age 4)
  • Donal Logue   as   Mark Stambler
  • Suzanne Cryer   as   Newscaster
  • Ken Olin, Simon Pegg   as   Radio voices
  • Greg Grunberg   as   Joe (voice)
  • Robert Gant, Sumalee Montano   as   Newscasters (voices)

German Dub

  • Johann Fohl   as   Kiel
  • Neda Rahmanian   as   Ava Hamilton
  • Jannik Endemann   as   Ernst Schmidt
  • Mattias Klimsa   as   Mundy
  • Karoline Bär   as   Mina Jensen
  • Oliver Warsitz   as   Volkov
  • Michael Lott   as   Monk Acosta
  • Jan D. Rönfeldt   as   Michael

Standard Spanish Dub

  • Vianney Monroy   as   Ava Hamilton
  • Marco Guerrero   as   Kiel
  • Christian Strempler   as   Ernst Schmidt
  • Raúl Torres   as   Michael
  • Germán Fabregat   as   Monk Acosta
  • Kerygma Flores   as   Mina Jensen
  • Dafnis Fernández   as   Mundy

Castilian Spanish Dub

  • Javier Lopez   as   Kiel
  • Antia Alvarez   as   Ava Hamilton
  • Daniel Rey   as   Ernst Schmidt
  • Julio Lorenzo   as   Mundy
  • Motse Davila   as   Mina Jensen
  • Daniel Lema   as   Volkov
  • Jose Carlos San Segundo   as   Monk Acosta
  • Juan Miranda   as   Michael

French Dub

  • Jean-Baptiste Anoumon   as   Kiel
  • Fily Keita   as   Ava Hamilton
  • Anatole de Bodinat   as   Ernst Schmidt
  • Fabien Jacquelin   as   Mundy
  • Chloé Berthier   as   Mina Jensen
  • Yann Guillemot   as   Volkov
  • Loïc Houndré   as   Monk Acosta
  • Diouc Koma   as   Michael

Italian Dub

  • Alessandro D'Errico   as   Kiel
  • Gea Riva   as   Ava Hamilton
  • Massimo De Ambrosis   as   Ernst Schmidt
  • Fabrizio Pucci   as   Mundy
  • Barbara De Bortoli   as   Mina Jensen
  • Loris Loddi   as   Volkov
  • Alessandro Messina   as   Monk Acosta
  • Stefano Crescentini   as   Michael

Japanese Dub

  • Chie Nakamura   as   Ava Hamilton
  • Taiten Kusonoki   as   Kiel
  • Yuya Uchida   as   Ernst Schmidt
  • Atsushi Goto   as   Monk Acosta
  • Takuya Kirimoto   as   Mundy
  • Madoka Shiga   as   Volkov
  • Saori Yuba   as   Tam
  • Yuka Komatsu   as   Mina Jensen
  • Fuminori Komatsu   as   Michael

Portuguese Dub

  • Angelica Borges   as   Ava Hamilton
  • Gabriel Noya   as   Kiel
  • Felipe Grinnan   as   Ernst Schmidt
  • Dlaigelles Riba   as   Michael
  • Gutemberg Barros   as   Monk Acosta
  • Mabel Cesar   as   Mina Jensen
  • Marco Ribeiro   as   Mundy

Turkish Dub

  • Fatih Özacun   as   Kiel
  • Elíf Acehan   as   Ava Hamilton
  • Özgür Özdural   as   Ernst Schmidt
  • Olcay Yusufoğlu   as   Mundy
  • Riza Karaağaçli   as   Mina Jensen
  • Ìlham Erdoğan   as   Volkov
  • Levent Ünsal   as   Monk Acosta
  • Tugay Erverdí   as   Michael

Appearances

Monsters

Weapons, Vehicles and Races

  • Cloverfield Station
  • Shepard Particle Accelerator

Development

The Cloverfield Paradox began life as a Oren Uziel spec script titled God Particle. In this telling, the astronauts testing the particle accelerator were all Americans, unknowingly helping the military develop a weapon to end a war against the European Union. Following the Earth's disappearance, they allow a team of European astronauts onboard and one of their crew members turns up dead. Paramount announced the film on November 30, 2012, and planned to release it under its low-budget Insurge label, with J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot serving as the production studio and Julius Onah as the director.[3] The project was developed at the same time as 10 Cloverfield Lane, though 10 Cloverfield Lane finished filming before Paramount closed Insurge, leaving God Particle in limbo for almost a year.

Production

Principal photography on the film began in Los Angeles on June 10, 2016, and concluded in September.[4] Reshoots were later conducted to "clarify character beats and tie the film to the [Cloverfield] franchise’s universe."[5] No longer constrained by Insurge, the film's budget expanded to $45 million.

Marketing

On July 17, 2017, Paramount opened a Twitter account for a Slusho truck, Slusho being the name of the fictitious soft drink whose parent company Tagruato inadvertently awakened the monster in the backstory for Cloverfield. A physical truck appeared at San Diego Comic Con several days later, serving beverages to attendees.[6] By completing a small puzzle involving a Snapchat filter, attendees could sign up to receive a Slusho bobblehead.[7] @SLUSHOTRUCK wrote about stops in six American towns and cities from July 17 to August 6, although it was only spotted in San Diego. Each place was the location of, or near, a large power plant.

On January 18, 2018, the tenth anniversary of Cloverfield's theatrical debut, the tagruato.jp website featured in the alternate reality games for that film and 10 Cloverfield Lane was updated. Only the main page is accessible, displaying an error message amid heavy distortion of the original site. Beneath and behind the error message is a press release announcing Tagruato's pursuit of a "revolutionary new energy technology," which is projected to be ready by April 18, 2028. The next day, Reddit user jnutttzzz discovered that the URL 04-18-2028.com led to a garbled video of a person saying, "That is why I'm trying to warn you about the dangers of Tagruato is trying to do." On January 24, both sites updated, with tagruato.jp displaying a new article about Tagruato partnering with companies called Oslo One and Norway Renewable. Audio from 04-18-2028.com mentioned an author named Mark Stambler, presumably a relative of Howard Stambler from 10 Cloverfield Lane. The character created a Twitter account, @TheMarkStambler, to deny any involvement with the videos, claiming that they were "most likely a student-designed hoax."

Packages containing Slusho bobbleheads, which also included a certificate of authenticity and pamphlet on the Cloverfield Energy Initiative, began to arrive at the homes of signatories on January 27.[8] A third video on 04-18-2018.com, posted the same day, revealed that Mark Stambler was a professor, and his book was about the real intent behind Tagruato's Clean Energy Initiative. Stambler tweeted another denial that his face was in the videos, adding, "My students are clearly taking a lesson plan about temporal anomalies too far."

The 04-18-2028.com video from January 30 included the phrase "third floor, by the lamp," a detail which prompted Stambler to notify the New York City Police Department. Five minutes after his Tweet, @SLUSHOTRUCK announced an impending tour of the East Coast. From January 31 to February 2, it posted about visits to three locations in close proximity to nuclear power plants. Tagruato.jp updated with a warning that the company was executing a 20-year plan to "steal the rest of the world's energy," as well as a January 2007 article in Hebrew about a temporary closing of Highway 90 near the Dead Sea.

On February 1, Stambler began to message several users on Twitter, cautiously asking for help. The following day, he passed along two videos he received from an unknown source, showing Kiel's mission logs aboard Cloverfield Station after the appearance of Jensen, before deactivating his account. Following each video, he wrote, "They said something about getting someone else's attention on the 418 site within the next few days. And that whatever they were sending, would show me what I need to write. If any of that means anything to you, please let me know." 04-18-2028.com updated for the last time on February 4, the same day the film was released on Netflix, with Stambler displaying the cover of his book, The Cloverfield Paradox.

Concerned about the box office prospects of The Cloverfield Paradox, Paramount sold nearly all of the rights to the film to Netflix for over $50 million in January 2018, with the exception of Chinese and home video distribution.[5] Netflix did not announce its acquisition until February 4, when it released a TV spot during Super Bowl LII and launched accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The film became available to stream immediately following the game.

Gallery

Main article: The Cloverfield Paradox/Gallery.

Alternate Titles

  • God Particle (Working Title)

Reception

The Cloverfield Paradox has an 19% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 131 reviews.[9] The site's Critical Consensus reads, "Brilliant casting is overshadowed by a muddled mix of genres and storylines that scratch more heads than sci-fi itches in The Cloverfield Paradox."

Video Releases

Paramount DVD/Blu-ray (2019)

  • Region: 1 (DVD) or A/1 (Blu-ray)
  • Discs: 1
  • Audio: English (Dolby Atmos and Dolby TrueHD 7.1), German, Castilian and Latin American Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese (Dolby Digital 5.1)
  • Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish, Thai
  • Special Features: "The Making of The Cloverfield Paradox" (14:23) and "Shepard Team: The Cast" (14:48) featurettes
  • Notes: Audio on the DVD is limited to English, Spanish, and French, while subtitles are limited to English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish. The Blu-ray has also been packaged with Cloverfield and 10 Cloverfield Lane.

Videos

Trailers

The Cloverfield Paradox TV spot
The Cloverfield Paradox trailer #1
The Cloverfield Paradox trailer #2

Clips

"The Eye"
"The Wall"

Alternate Reality Game

Unboxing of the Slusho bobblehead
First 04-18-2028.com clip
Second 04-18-2028.com clip
Third 04-18-2028.com clip
Fourth 04-18-2028.com clip
Fifth 04-18-2028.com clip
First video sent by @TheMarkStambler
Second video sent by @TheMarkStambler

Trivia

  • Aside from Clover himself, The Cloverfield Paradox contains numerous references to previous films in the series:
    • Audio from a Slusho radio ad briefly plays alongside the Bad Robot logo.
    • The word "Tagruato" appears on an electrical panel.
    • Suzanne Cryer, who portrays the newscaster interviewing Mark Stambler, also played Howard Stambler's doomed neighbor in 10 Cloverfield Lane.
    • Most of J.J. Abrams' projects incorporate the word "Kelvin" as a tribute to his late grandfather, Henry Kelvin. In The Cloverfield Paradox, as in Super 8 and 10 Cloverfield Lane, it appears as the name of a gas station. Later, it can be seen on a hatch aboard Cloverfield Station.
    • A Slusho bobblehead, nearly identical to the one given away as part of the film's alternate reality game, rattles during the first successful test of the Shepard Particle Accelerator.
    • One of the panicked messages Michael reads on his phone as Clover's species arrives on Earth reads, "Did the Martians finally figure out a way to get here?" Howard uses a nearly identical phrase in 10 Cloverfield Lane.

External Links

References

This is a list of references for The Cloverfield Paradox. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]

Comments

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